Ris, Mason Lucy-Speidel star at Bull Run meet

Central’s Mason Lucy-Speidel, center, his brother Sawyer, second from right, and Warren County’s DJ Staton, right, lead a pack of runners during the Bull Run District Cross Country meet Wednesday in Woodstock. Rich Cooley/Daily

Central’s Mason Lucy-Speidel comes across the finish line of the Bull Run District Cross Country match on Wednesday in Woodstock. Lucy-Speidel finished second overall in the race with a time of 16:32. Rich Cooley/Daily

Warren County’s Kiersten Tanner leads a pack of runners near the finish line. Tanner was seventh in the race. Rich Cooley/Daily

Warren County’s DJ Staton, left, and Bailey Grant, right, make a turn during the Bull Run District Cross Country match on Wednesday. Grant finished sixth overall place and Staton finished eighth. Rich Cooley/Daily

Madison’s Zach McLearen edges out Central’s Chase Rimel at the finish line by one second placing 13th and 14th respectively during the Bull Run District Cross Country meet on Oct. 12 in Woodstock. The Falcons will be running in the state cross country meet today at Great Meadow in The Plains. Rich Cooley/Daily file

Central's Mason Lucy-Speidel, center, his brother Sawyer, second from right, and Warren County's DJ Staton, right, lead a pack of runners during the Bull Run District Cross Country meet Wednesday in Woodstock. Rich Cooley/Daily

WOODSTOCK – “Turbo-charged.” That’s how Warren County High School assistant cross-country coach Paul Ranney described junior Jacqui Ris at Wednesday’s Bull Run District meet.

Ris clipped along at a pace of 20 minutes flat to finish second among the girls in the 3-mile run at Central High School’s North Street course.

She led her team to a runner-up position (63 points) behind George Mason (44; low score wins).

“I call her turbo-charged, because once she gets going she’s hard to stop,” said Ranney.

Meanwhile, for the boys, Central’s Mason Lucy-Speidel cracked the course at 16:32, good enough for runner-up in the boys’ race behind perennial champion Gavin Jenkins of Rappahannock County (16:25).

Placements by Mason Lucy-Speidel, his twin brother Sawyer Lucy-Speidel (16:46.48), who finished in fourth, and their teammate, Gus Wightman (16:48), a fifth-place finisher, led the Falcons to their second consecutive championship trophy at this event.

Last year, Warren head coach Joseph Owens said that the coaches’ plan for the season called for heavier work leading up to regionals, but the team fell a bit flat at the state meet. The Wildcats finished third in the regional race.

“We felt like we may have slowed down a little bit at the end, so this year we’re trying to build up slowly,” said Owens.

“Jacqui has probably changed more than any runner we have,” Owens said. “When she was a freshman, she was quiet. You never heard from her. She’s one of our leaders now.”

Ris remained at the finish line, congratulating those in maroon and white, as well as other competitors.

Central's Mason Lucy-Speidel comes across the finish line of the Bull Run District Cross Country match on Wednesday in Woodstock. Lucy-Speidel finished second overall in the race with a time of 16:32. Rich Cooley/Daily

“She does everything we ask: she eats right and gets her sleep. She wants to do well and backs it up,” said Owens.

“I’ve changed some things around this season,” Ris said. “I’ve been running with the boys on some lighter (running) days and in their sprint work and I think it’s paying off.”

Because of the additional work, Ris decided to start out with a burst on a bright, sun-shiny, upper-60-degree day.

Once she starts out – she ran a 6-minute, 13-second mile to open – she said she pays close attention to her surroundings. She does so, not so much with her eyes – which are focused ahead – but with her ears.

Warren County's Kiersten Tanner leads a pack of runners near the finish line. Tanner was seventh in the race. Rich Cooley/Daily

“I listen to things around me,” she said, “… breathing, footsteps, somebody stepping on a twig.”

At the first mile marker, she was tucked away in third place behind Linnea Skotte and Estelle Timar-Wilcox of George Mason. By the second-mile go-around, she had sprinted into second position.

Clarke County’s Madison Webster won the girls’ race with a time of 19:38, a little more than a half-minute ahead of Ris. Skotte’s finishing time was 20:26.26 (fourth) and Timar-Wilcox came in fifth (20:26.87).

For the boys, Mason Lucy-Speidel, who recently finished fifth for the boys among Group A/AA schools at the annual Stonewall Jackson Invitational on the New Market Battlefield, finished runner-up here.

The battlefield layout is a little more than a tenth of a mile longer than the North Street course.

Warren County's DJ Staton, left, and Bailey Grant, right, make a turn during the Bull Run District Cross Country match on Wednesday. Grant finished sixth overall place and Staton finished eighth. Rich Cooley/Daily

Mason Lucy-Speidel finished just seven seconds off the lead. However he likes to see “where everybody else is,” before he begins his design on the second mile.

At the first mile, Mason and Sawyer Lucy-Speidel laid back in a pack while teammate Wightman drove ahead.

By the second mile Mason Lucy-Speidel was in second place followed by Wightman.

Wightman’s first mile timed out at 5:18.

“I decided to take it out at the beginning, but I didn’t finish as well as maybe I would have liked. I still earned all-district,” he said.

Madison's Zach McLearen edges out Central's Chase Rimel at the finish line by one second placing 13th and 14th respectively during the Bull Run District Cross Country meet on Oct. 12 in Woodstock. The Falcons will be running in the state cross country meet today at Great Meadow in The Plains. Rich Cooley/Daily file

The top 14 runners in the girls’ and boys’ races qualified for the All-Bull Run team.

It was the second such designation for Sawyer Lucy-Speidel (his brother played football in the fall of 2015) and Wightman.

Other all-district-winning girls included Grace Dellinger (ninth, 20:37) and Rachel Palmer (10th, 20:38), both of Strasburg.

“The girls’ team did a really good job today, using today’s race to prep themselves for the upcoming championship season. Both Debra Dillman and Mary Carter – both first-year runners – had great races today that give us a lot of optimism for the next few weeks of the season,” said Strasburg coach Jeff Rudy.

“The boys team is starting to gel real nicely,” he said. “We weren’t running at full strength today. The competition was strong too. We as coaches were really happy to see their improvement. Ryan Davis did a good job medaling. And Anthony Cadle, a freshman, stepped up and ran as our number five runner.”

On the boys’ side, the order of teams behind Central was William Monroe (second, 78 points), George Mason (third, 101), Strasburg (fourth, 109), Clarke County (fifth, 117) and Warren County (sixth, 119).

The girls’ team leaderboard: After George Mason and Warren, William Monroe finished third (74), Clarke (fourth, 83); Strasburg (fifth, 98), Rappahannock County (sixth, 129) and Central (seventh, 165).

Trophies were awarded to the teams that finished first for the girls and boys. Also, the individual winners took home hardware. Each of the 14 place finishers among the genders medaled.